CP wrote --

> I've hung out with enough Southerners I've picked up on it, too, & I like it, 
 
   Its a simple sign of respect.
   And respect for the person is earned, not the respect for the position
they have.

> as it's an equality thing -- everyone uses the honorific, same as in Japan 

  Yep.

> I used to talk to several men & women in the South, as par t of my job, & I liked being greeted as "sir" by men & women, young & old, CEOs & CSRs all the same.

  It's merely respect for the other person.

> . . that helped me pick up on it, too -- it's automatic now, if I hear a southern accent, I call them Sir or Ma'am.

   We don't have accents, its everyone else that talks funny.  :)

> Too bad, she-dog, you said you wanted equality with "Mr."; well, you've got it!

   It's a two way street.
   
> I see this in old movies with the house Negro using such addresses.

   I had a black supervisor one time and everyone who worked with him,
whether black or white, called him Mr Pete.
   (While a supervisor he often got his hands dirty with us.  That helped 
a lot since other supers just stood around an watched the others work.)

> Bingo! It's like Georgie had a vision of today -- except he, not unreasonably, mistook computer monitors as televisions, as being the means BB kept tabs on all.

   I read once someone said something to the extent "'1984' is a warning,
not a blueprint".  I mangled that in the translation I know.
   Joe
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